MARION - A bike is on Diane Keim's Christmas list after a wreck totaled hers.

"Maybe Santa Claus will put one under the tree," she said.

A bike is just one of several modes of transportation Keim has used to get to work helping clients with cooking, bathing and cleaning in houses across Marion.

Left without a bike, Keim takes the bus, boarding Marion Area Transit's buses about four times a day to go "all over" the city for work, she said from the downtown station.

She loves that the bus will pick her up at her door. But one thing she doesn't like about the city's bus system is the limited hours, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with riders paying extra to be picked up no earlier than 6 a.m. and dropped off no later than 5:30 p.m.

Keim works odd hours, with her schedule sometimes putting her at clients' houses late in the evening. When that happens, she hails a taxi or hoofs it.

"Depends on the money situation whether I take a cab or walk," she said.

Bus riders may see longer hours of operation in coming years following efforts to create what is called a coordinated transportation plan for Crawford, Marion and Morrow counties, a plan that would open doors to more funding for public transportation.

The federal government requires that local stakeholders develop a coordinated plan before they can receive certain grant dollars for implementing and expanding public transportation, especially for seniors, the disabled and the poor.

The Ohio Department of Transportation projected in a 2015 study that the demand for public transportation is only going to increase in coming years. The agency found that more people will rely on public transportation as Ohio's rural population continues to grow older and as poverty rates rise, according to the study.

Marion Matters, a local anti-poverty nonprofit, has singled out transportation as a major barrier to people living in poverty.

"For people who are in poverty, most of them are looking at lower-level income jobs," said Jo Ann Radwin-Zimmerman, of Marion Matters. "Many of them are looking for places like Walmart, Meijer, Kroger, and their hours are 24-7. ... If they don’t get off work until 9 at night, well, they could probably catch a bus that would get them there, but how would they get home?"

Jeff Marsh, transit administrator for Marion Area Transit, acknowledged most riders want the buses to run later and on weekends. He said he is open to expanding services if only the money to do it was there.

"It’s just a matter of funding and how do we do that," he said.

The Marion Area Transit operates on a roughly $1 million budget, with the bus service receiving about 20 percent of its budget from the city, 10 to 15 percent from fares and the remainder from the state and federal governments.

Jerry Kraft, who said he earns about $800 in social security per month, was on the way to his weekly visit with his daughter at Marion County Children's Services Tuesday.

He said he wished the city buses were more timely and faster. Kraft said the bus was late picking him up and dropped him off at the downtown station too late to catch the 3:30 p.m. south bus.